[a] counterbalance to the film industry

Menu

Mandy

“When I die, bury me deep”

[Douglas Roberts]

Behind the veil of its absurdity and violence is a beautiful landscape of psychedilic sound and color driven by the maniac desire for revenge no matter the cost. Nicholas Cage returns in a big way as only Nicholas Cage can return: drinking vodka on the toilet wearing tighty whities in eager anticipation for a death match with Hellraiser bikers and killing religious sociopaths with self-forged weapons. A “fantasy feature awash in physical and emotional violence.” A film entrapped between the coalescence of the familial grounding of isolation and the capacity of man to exhibits itself in the evils of the occult. Alone and debased, Cage, in the immemorial words of Denzel Washington in Man on Fire, has just one more life to take. Summarized best by Eric Kohn (Indie Wire):

Panos Cosmatos’ followup to his wacky debut, “Beyond the Black Rainbow,” is another stunning dose of psychedelia and derangement, this one folded into the constraints of a woodsy revenge thriller, but that’s mainly an excuse for Cage to unleash his most psychotic extremes. Cosmatos gives him plenty of opportunities in this hypnotic midnight movie, which veers from astonishing, expressionistic exchanges to gory mayhem without an iota of compromise

Not to be outdone is Andrea Riseborough — “lending a lysergic nervousness to her heroine” — and continuing to impress with her haunting depictions of female characters ready to take an emotional chainsaw to the face of the audience with impunity (see also Nancy). If you’re looking for an acid trip inside a madhouse while questioning the nature of your reality to the sound of King Crimson and Jóhann Jóhannsson, you’ve come to the right place.